A 57-year-old Shreveport, LA, man has been sentenced to pay more than $14,000 in restitution and serve 48 hours of community service as conditions of a two year probated sentence for federal wildlife violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales today.

Stephen Anderson Sipes Jr. pleaded guilty on June 10, 2013, to negligent transportation of wildlife and was sentenced today by U.S. Magistrate Judge John D. Love.

According to information presented in court, Sipes had an ownership interest in a high-fence ranch in Sanderson, Texas. On Jan. 14, 2010, Sipes transported and possessed 14 live, illegally imported whitetail deer valued at over $350 each from Carthage, Missouri to the ranch in Sanderson, which is prohibited by Texas law. The fair market value of the illegally imported whitetail deer was approximately $5,650.

Sipes must pay $14,016.49 in restitution to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation to compensate the agency for costs incurred in protecting the native deer from the risk of disease potentially carried by the Missouri whitetails.

This case was investigated by the Special Operations Unit of the Texas Parks and Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Noble.

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